Business is, and always will be, a full contact sport. Even if youâ€™re an ethical, professional and talented person, there are always people working an angle.

The more successful or visible you become, the more people will try and undermine you or will attempt to play in your sandbox. There are lots of people in business who make a career of just getting by. These are the yes-men. These are the people who will throw their team under the bus when things go wrong and take the credit when things go well. We all know that true leaders do the opposite.

So what do you do? Internal politics and siloed thinking abound. Many on your team will be more concerned with protecting turf than actually helping your business win. Theyâ€™re dangerous and theyâ€™re a cancer. Yet, you still can use them to your advantage. Keep your emotions in check and use their arrogance to advance your agenda to succeed.

The great Chinese general Sun Tzu, in his strategy called â€œThe Art of War,â€ said this:

â€œBe extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness.â€

This is why, when facing adversaries in your corporate or company culture, you must use stealth and let them think youâ€™re as stupid as they think you are. Itâ€™s a huge advantage and you can use it against them.

There are landmines everywhere. But donâ€™t let the negative energy of business leeches, and those that work against your team mentality get you down.